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How is my Soundtrack?

Started by December 16, 2007 09:36 PM
5 comments, last by taelmx 16 years, 10 months ago
http://www.rs-anime.com/soundtrack0.2/ Are there any suggestions that you have?
Hey,

Is this music that you've written or have compiled together? I liked Aria Depths, very cool stuff! Arrival needs some work and some better sounding patches. Comet has a neat intro.

Instead of just linking the entire soundtrack and asking if it is good or not, why not supply more background to the story and method of game play in your project. It would also help to know how these songs are being used, so we can better judge if the soundtrack is hitting the mark, or missing it.

Also, I can help out with your choral issue. I have a good deal of experience writing music and working with choirs and choral based samples. Check out my website for samples: www.madsenstudios.com

Thanks for sharing.

Nathan

Nathan Madsen
Nate (AT) MadsenStudios (DOT) Com
Composer-Sound Designer
Madsen Studios
Austin, TX

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Thank you! I will look at the website.

Here is some sections about the game and it's regions:
Shrines


Here's a rough description of where the songs will be used:

Abyss - Used for a "dead world", similar to when Frodo puts on the ring in Lord of the Rings.

Aria Depths - A region with deep sea monsters; almost pitch black except for "glow in the dark" coral and monsters.

Arrival - cutscene for when your character sees Konna(the game world) for the first time.

Beach - For some of the beach areas in the game.

Birth - When the character sees one of the four divinities get possessed by a monster virus. Eclipse, the main antagonist is born.

Bridge - There is a major bridge in the sky with Incan/Greek architecture. It leads to one of the shrines.(more will be added to this)

Clock - An old man's house.(more will be added to this)

Comet - A space region.

Crescent - A moon region.

Daemon - A spirit city. There is a lot of Chinese influence on the city.

Dark Shrine - http://www.rs-anime.com/wiki/index.php?title=Dungeon_Development#Dark_Shrine

Death Gate - There is an enormous gate that leads to the Death Shrine. There are dark rivers and marble hallways that lead to it.

Death Shrine - http://www.rs-anime.com/wiki/index.php?title=Dungeon_Development#Death_Shrine

Deep Space - You warp to this region of space when a portal opens on the moon. It is very far from the actual game world and is somewhat of an extra stage.

Earth Shrine - http://www.rs-anime.com/wiki/index.php?title=Dungeon_Development#Earth_Shrine

Egg - The shop theme; There will be variations of this song for different shops.

Empty - Cutscene for the predicted destruction of a village or region.

Evil - Eclipses Theme. There will be many cutscenes with this.

Fairy - ???

Farm - Theme for Milk Farm. Needs revision.

Fish - Theme for when one of the fish gods appear. (more will be added to this)

Flame Shrine - http://www.rs-anime.com/wiki/index.php?title=Dungeon_Development#Flame_Shrine

Flashback - For flashback cutscenes.

Flying - When your character is flying(on an airship or bird)

Force Shrine - http://www.rs-anime.com/wiki/index.php?title=Dungeon_Development#Force_Shrine

Forest Shrine - http://www.rs-anime.com/wiki/index.php?title=Dungeon_Development#Forest_Shrine

Frost - For a snow mountain village.

Intro - Intro to (something).

Konna - Overworld theme.

Laboratory- The Mori research station on the moon.

Legend - Flashback cutscene telling about a legend.

Life Shrine - http://www.rs-anime.com/wiki/index.php?title=Dungeon_Development#Life_Shrine

Light Shrine - http://www.rs-anime.com/wiki/index.php?title=Dungeon_Development#Light_Shrine

Lunar - May be used for when a quest is completed.

Memories - ???

Mesayan Room - For Mesayan houses.

Mesayan Town - For the Mesayan town. Similar to Kakariko village from Twilight Princess.

Moon - For the Moon region.

Moonfall Room - For Lunarian Houses.

Moon Night - For the Moon during the night.

Moon Shrine - http://www.rs-anime.com/wiki/index.php?title=Dungeon_Development#Moon_Shrine

Moon Tunnels - There are secret tunnels in the moon; similar to the tunnels found in Metroid Prime.

New World - ??? Cutscene

Prologue - Similar use as Legend, but less legendary. (will be revised)

Realm - For realm travel (warping cutscene).

Sea - The song for traveling on the sea(during the night)

Secret - music played when there is a secret area near. (hidden grotto.)

Shrine - Similar to Legend, but for the shrines.

Space Pirate - You meet (friendly) space pirates near the space station.

Space Station - There is a Space Station village.

Space Station Deck - There is a deck for the space station that is on top so you can see all around it.

Star - Similar to how Comet will be used.

Story - Similar to Legend, but for stories.

Summit - For a mountain summit.

Tale - Another variation of Legend.

Thoughts - For a creepy cutscene.

Time Shrine - http://www.rs-anime.com/wiki/index.php?title=Dungeon_Development#Time_Shrine

Tortuga Island - For seeing Tortuga Island for the first time. Tortuga Island is an amusement park that is run by pirates.

Trailer - Background for a trailer of the game.

Trailer2 - Variation of the trailer music

Underwater - For when the character is swimming underwater. (may be revised)

Voices - ??? Cutscene.

Voyage - Another overworld theme. (may be revised)

Water Shrine - http://www.rs-anime.com/wiki/index.php?title=Dungeon_Development#Water_Shrine

Weeble - Weeble is a non-human playable character in the Tower of the Gods. He looks like a cross between a hare and a fox.

Wind Shrine - http://www.rs-anime.com/wiki/index.php?title=Dungeon_Development#Wind_Shrine

Woods - A theme for woods full of wildlife.

Woods2 - A variation of the woods theme for a foggy, rockier part of the woods.
wow wow wow wow wow!! i keep this on play. only a kid could have written stuff w/ this much imagination!

The music is brave, expansive, imaginative and fits thescenes perfectly I think

I guess I have a suggestions for Arrivals: Pick out one melody and expand on it. I hear all of these catchy flute trills that soar above the pumping string pulse, they are all beautiful, but my ear gets confused like it needs one theme to love, one, your favorite melody maybe... as a handhold. then you could expand it. like how you do in "egg" or the string part in "konna"

....
........
.....
...
.....
...

Just finished TRAVELLING through the rest of it... in love with it. melodies, confident and your imagination to expand them and juxtapose them is varied and great enough to make a fantasy WORLD... (again once in a while, sometimes, I am lost and searching for the main theme in a track... maybe make sure to hold onto one core heart melody to expand per scene)

okay track reactions some are...

clocks: perfect for the scene !!!!

legend: harp is totally well done

woods: That wail cry in it... my friend on the bed next to me says "That's the sound of humanit!" ;)

star: sublime, super heavenly melody

moon tunnels: the falling down synth when the beat stops is one of the catchiest sweetest electronic melodies i've heard in aWHILE. could be turned into a great electronica classic.

may I humbly ask what DAW/ synth/ set-up you use? i want to expand my horizons

peace, keep making music, you are super super talented and free

[Edited by - the scout on December 29, 2007 9:34:55 AM]
Wow, thank you for the feedback! I will be redoing some of the tracks such as the Arrival one. I used mostly FL Studio for all the songs, I've been using it for a while, so I can stretch it's functionality a lot. I also used a couple VSTs, such as EWQLSO and EWQLSC, along with one called Legacycell. Again, thanks a lot for the feedback! I'll definately still be making music.
I agree mostly with The Scout. This is one hell of a sound track. It's not as melodic (opinion) as that of Uematsu Nobuo (Final Fantasy), but it's very melodic, which is my preference. I hate ambiance. I think immersion can be achieved better if the gamer is loving the music. Not just if it has sound effects in the background.

The themes are really well played out, and there's a good variance.

Although, I might say that "Mesaya Town" sounds, if not exactly, somewhat like a song in Final Fantasy VII. Unless I'm remembering wrong...but when I was listening, I knew what every next note would be--including instrumentation, so I think I might be right.

I thought "Intro" could use a little more work. Maybe, it's exactly what you were going for, but some parts feel either cluttered, or the change is abrupt.

I think "Evil" works perfectly. The juxtaposition of soft, floaty sounds with hard, and off tune(?) really does something I rarely ever see in music. I wish it was a little longer. It's a theme that I think really worked.

Overall, very good. I'm be impressed that anyone could do a soundtrack like this. Someone with your skill shouldn't need to post here for confidence.
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Thank you! Actually, this is my first time making a soundtrack. In particular, the Mesayan Town song was based of a midi that came with RPG Maker XP, that might be why it sounds familiar. I also try to model my style to some RPG composers, like the one who did Final Fantasy, Yoko Kanno(Uncharted Waters/Lots of anime soundtracks) and also Koji Kondo(Nintendo) who did music for many of the Zelda series, so that may also be why it sounds familiar.

I totally agree with you on the melody aspect of music. Melody is more important than the patches you use and the sound effects. Ambiance is not totally bad though. If you use it for the right setting and in the right way, it can also be immersive. In the soundtrack list, Realm is one of the ambient songs I made that I think can be immersive, but complete absence of melody will not achieve the same effect.

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